Monday, June 30, 2014

Larry Updike: From Pentecostal Minister to Shock-Rock Radio Jock to . . . (read his book to find out)

My friend Larry Updike released his new book
last week. TitledMy Word! The Larry Updike Story,the book
chronicles his life from being a Pentecostal minister through the “debauchery”
of shock-rock radio in the 1980s to being a talk show host in Winnipeg. Oh, and
he picked up degrees in theology and philosophy along the way. I was able to interview
Larry in 2009 about his journey to that point.

What
do you get when you cross a young firebrand Pentecostal minister with a
university philosophy major and rock radio DJ?

You
get Larry Updike, the morning show host on CJOB.

“It’s
been an interesting journey,” says Updike, 53, of his trip from wunderkind
preacher to leaving the church to become one of Winnipeg’s most popular rock
radio show hosts—and then back to the church again.

This
morning Updike will “complete the circle” when he preaches at Central Baptist
Church on Ellice Avenue.

“It
will come as a surprise to many,” says Updike, adding that some people “will be
shocked.”

From
the age of nine, all Updike wanted to be was a preacher and evangelist. Growing
up in southern Ontario, he remembers setting up a pulpit in the garage and
preaching to his friends.

He preached his first real sermon at 16, and was ordained at 21 after graduation from
Bible college.

His
first church was in Fort Francis, Ont., in 1976, where he did a pastoral
internship. Looking for ways to earn a little extra income, he applied for a
job at a local radio station.

“Back
then, the turnover at small radio stations was enormous,” he says. Before long,
he was doing the morning show and working in the church.

He
moved Weyburn, Sask. in 1978, where he once again served as a pastor and worked
at the local radio station. He moved to Winnipeg in 1979 so his wife could
pursue nursing studies, assisted at a local church and got a job at CHMM, which
later became KISS FM.

In
1980, his marriage ended, and so did his ministry.

“We
got married really young, and drifted apart,” he says. The split was amicable,
but his work with the church was over—back then, divorced pastors were
automatically disqualified from leading most evangelical churches.

“Everything
I was going to be was gone,” he says. “All I ever wanted to be was a pastor.”

Feeling
abandoned and angry, he cut all ties with the church and threw himself into his
life as a rock radio DJ on the Tom and Larry show with Tom McGouran.

Life
as a DJ was very different from pastoring. “I lived the life a rock radio DJ to
the hilt, he says. It was a polar opposite of the way I had been living. I went
from preaching against the wages of sin to collecting them—big time.”

He
didn’t lose complete interest in religion, completing a degree in theology at
the University of Winnipeg in 1984. In 1995, he graduated with a degree in
philosophy, winning the university’s highest award in that subject.

It
was, he recalls, an “odd mixture of rock radio and university,” but it helped
him “keep my feet on the ground” and avoid becoming a “rock radio casualty.”

Marriage to Mary-Ann, in 1991, also helped him stay grounded.

Through
it all, he felt something pulling him back to faith.

“I
was an observer from the outside for a long time, but I didn’t know how to go
back—I didn’t feel worthy,” he says. “I didn’t know if I’d be accepted.”

He
especially didn’t want to be seen as a trophy convert, a “victim of a pastor
who wanted to rescue a celebrity.”

That
changed just over a year ago, when he checked out the Facebook profile of
Central Baptist pastor Greg Glatz.

Glatz’s
interest in philosophy piqued Updike’s interest, and soon the two were
communicating electronically about philosophy and religion.

What
was most impressive, Updike says, is that Glatz didn’t try to convert him.

“Greg
did not try to solicit my attendance at his church or proselytize me,” he says.
“He just wanted to be my friend.”

For
Glatz, getting to know Updike wasn’t about getting him saved. “I wasn’t
interested in his celebrity or his conversion,” he says. “I figured he was
already converted. I was interested in his journey.”

He
also saw Updike as someone God could use—just as he was.

“Everything
that happened to him made him what he is,” Glatz says. “He doesn’t need to
renounce it or repudiate it.”

Updike
was won over by Glatz’s friendliness and honesty, and began attending his
church. Also key was the way the church responded to his son, Gordon, who has
autism.

“Gordon
isn’t verbal, and he doesn’t take well to new places,” he says. “We wondered if
he would be accepted. But he has found a place there, a chance to be involved.
He’s fit in very well—he loves the music and helps with the offering. The
church has been very accepting.”

As
for his sermon today, Updike will be preaching the very first sermon he ever
gave 37 years ago, on how Jesus calmed the waters and the frightened disciples
when they were caught in a storm.

It
will be very different this time, though. “When I was young, I thought I knew
it all and had it all figured out. I’m approaching life and faith now as a more
mature person, with some life experience. Now my focus is trusting God, in
spite of storms. Christians don’t get a pass. Storms happen to us, too.”